I just arrived here in Frederick Maryland and it seems there are lots of great haunts here. I am looking forward to meeting all of you!

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IDEA~

Ghost Drag.

This idea was a predecessor to another prop idea I had that I am saving for a later date to publish. But, like all of my ideas, drawn inside my black book, are available for viewing. The ideas inside my black book range from: costumes, props, illusions, lighting, to pneumatic props and more. I would be happy to show it to any haunters out there. When I worked for Larry over at the Darkness, I showed it to him briefly. He said, “There really is a black book.” He had little time to browse it, so he opened about 8-9 pages before I figure it was long enough.
Concept:
Imagine an actor, dressed in torn clothing, as if he survived a struggle. The actor is laying on the floor, leaning up on one hand. The other arm is stretched out to reach for someone walking towards him. He screams and is slammed down to the ground. His feet are lifted into the air by some unseen giant and his body is dragged across the floor. The actor is reaching and scratching the ground as he is pulled away.
How this might work:
This is a small cart much like a skateboard that pulls someone on their stomach across a flat surface. Sorry that’s sounds so simple. The skate board-board is shaped like short pyramid with rounded top. When an actor lays down over it there is a large hump. The actor lays over this hump (stomach down) and to simulate a thrashing down movement, he just lowers himself to the floor quickly. His head remains looking up. From the side this will look a little funny without a good torn costume to cover the prop, but luckily this is to be viewed from the front. So, from the front you see someone thrown to the floor. His legs lift into the air. Actually, he raises them manually. The “hump” will give him extra lift to look like someone is pulling up his feet. When his feet are lifted, the board (on wheels) pulls him across the floor.
The board on wheels should be attached to a long spring or bungee cord. In preparation, with the spring stretched, the actor lays across the skateboard, lowering his feet to stay in place. his feet will stop him from moving.
I am thinking this idea might be great for our beginning haunters out there that need that little extra creepy scare. For the more advanced, this might be a good concept for a pneumatic prop.

How about adding in some slider gloves to make nasty scraping noises, protect the actor and make it easier to balance on the board as the pull back starts.

I'm concerned there might be a tendency for the sliding board to pull away from under the actor, might have to find some way to attach them physically to the board, or reduce the hump angle.

I bet you could get away with doing this on a flat skate, have the actor wave one leg around, as if grabbed, lift the braking foot and then ping off they go. Would mean you could swap legs / actions if you were going to act this scene all night. I'm betting this one would be tiring.

A tag team could run this; actor is dragged away -pause- "where the **** did he go?" and bang! Hit 'em with a scare from behind to drive them out of the room, into where the actor was dragged, then you'd need to re-set the skate. Anchoring the bungee might be fun too, have to go out through the panels (if it's a 8x4 panel maze which is what I'm thinking about trying) and onto something in the building....